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Opera Turns 10, Gives Away Free Registrations

osvejda writes "Opera Software ASA is celebrating 10-year anniversary of its browser. As a surprise party favor they're giving away free registration codes (for as long as the party lasts). Also see photos from the party, listen to music by employees, play games and more."

37 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. Easy instructions by dividedsky319 · · Score: 3, Informative

    "For one day only, you can get an ad-free version of Opera. Simply e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code. This offer is valid from 12 a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT)."

    1. Re:Easy instructions by nemexi · · Score: 5, Informative

      Didn't work for me, took a few hours for others. This link gives you a reg code immediately.

    2. Re:Easy instructions by spydir31 · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's not right, just go to this page and give em an email, get code

  2. Registration Code by nemexi · · Score: 3, Informative

    Get your free registration code here.

  3. Happy Birthday Opera! by samj · · Score: 4, Informative
    The form was already running slowly before Slashdot arrived so if it breaks (as it no doubt will), you can get a code by mail per http://www.download.com/Opera/3000-2356_4-10421507 .html?tag=excl
    Note: For one day only, you can get an ad-free version of Opera. Simply e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code. This offer is valid from 12 a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT).
  4. That's great by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Except, you know, about the part where Opera contains absolutely no spyware you uniformed troll

    --
    I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
    1. Re:That's great by bhtooefr · · Score: 1, Informative

      He could be talking about the Opera 5 days, when Opera had partnered with Cydoor for the ads.

      There was a MAJOR uproar back then, b/c Cydoor was (even then) a known spyware company.

      However, Opera 6 stopped using Cydoor, and now Opera 7.2+ prefer Google for ads.

  5. Re:Never had a reason to use Opera by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, now add tabs, a customizable UI (if you want that...), a MDI, an undo feature for closing tabs and a download manager that can resume. Even if you don't need it, it's nice to have.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  6. Re:Codes are for by Dakisha · · Score: 5, Informative

    After firefox and safari? :)

    I use opera before I'll touch firefox. There is the odd website that prefers firefox, but its pretty rare.

    This is nothing more than the usual opera fan pouring his heart out about how wonderful the interface to opera is. I cant stand the tab implimentation in firefox, it's borked!

    Tabs in opera work with proper focusing. If you have 5 notepad windows open, click number 1, then 5, then close 5 - you expect number 1 to be below it. If windows were firefox then you'd be presented with number 4. Not to mention the bare minimum of shortcut keys in firefox.

    what can I say - I'm an opera fan, it does what I want it to, it does it quickly, it saves me time over the course of a day. And the email client rocks once you learn how to use it. I get ~300 emails a day that need my attention, and operas system of filters and views lets me manage it all with minimal hassle.

    I also have some 30,000 emails in opera and it still searches the whole lot in real time. If I had to complain, I'd only ask for one more feature.

    Nested tabs. Opera has a session manager ; when you close it, you can have it load excatly where you left off. All the tabs you had open are all waiting for you when you re-open the browser.

    While this does do away with the need for bookmarks - it does leave you with 20-30 tabs constantly open sometimes. If I could sort these into catagorys - my torrents/anime go into one nested set of tabs, my tech news into another - all those pages could hide in the space it takes for just one tab until I need them.

    I keep meaning to send this in as a feature request.

    Thats enough rambling on the joys of opera ; free key, now you've got no excuse :)

  7. Re:The one thing keeping me from using Opera by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can use custom stylesheets but the zoom is meant to zoom everything (great for flash movies or something that takes up only a small part of your window). You can define a minimum font size in the options (advanced->fonts), though.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  8. Re:Swim the World! by Bluey · · Score: 5, Informative

    He gave it his best, getting an admirable 30 feet from the dock, but it turned into an all-to-familiar case of blame the PR department when he failed.

  9. 10 years of Opera by brajesh · · Score: 3, Informative
    --
    95% of all sigs are made up.
  10. Quicky review by Fished · · Score: 4, Informative
    I have to admit that I had not tried Opera in years. However, I decided to go ahead and try it again since (a) it was free and (b) I've been more or less stuck with IE because of corporate websites that require Microsoft's JVM to work.

    Cutting straight to the chase, Opera DOES work with corporate websites that require Microsoft's JVM, and Firefox does not. That's the good news.

    Bad news: I think the speed claims may be overblown. I also find the interface a bit klunky. More substantively, the browser would be improved by having it automatically import IE bookmarks. Unfortunately, I had to manually import the bookmarks.

    Otherwise, looks pretty good.

    --
    "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
    1. Re:Quicky review by jp10558 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The default interface is a topic of lots of argument - if you look at the screenshot history, many (myself included) liked the Opera 5.x era default interface (minus the ad of course).

      OTOH, Opera's interface isn't difficult to customize either, I have 8.02 looking very similar to that O5 default interface.

      On the my.opera.com servers (assuming they aren't melting) there are one click (or two click if you want to separate out look and function) downloads to mimic IE or FF or Safari.

      You can also create your own rather simply - though menu editing is more difficult - ini edits are necessary.

      --
      Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
  11. Re:the day MS gives software away for free by leonmergen · · Score: 1, Informative

    is the day that, simultaneously, chickens will grow teeth, pigs learn to fly for extended periods of time and grannies compete in extreme skateboarding competitions while mainlining heroin.

    Microsoft gives away free Windows licenses at our University here. They say they support education, but /me thinks it's to make sure every student knows how to work with Windows software, and all Software Engineering students know how to write Windows software...

    So, in the end, Microsoft does give away free licenses, but makes money off it anyways...

    --
    - Leon Mergen
    http://www.solatis.com
  12. Re:As usual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Use IE, and you are a troll."

    No, no, no. You IE and you're an idiot! Even Windows bias sites tend to agree.

  13. Re:how are they surviving by Nick+of+NSTime · · Score: 2, Informative

    Try it out. Opera has a different user experience that some people prefer. It also uses less memory. Like I said, try it for yourself and make your own decisions.

  14. Re:About time by m50d · · Score: 3, Informative
    I mean, why pay when you gan get a free alternative elsewhere?

    Because it's better, and better by enough to be worth the money.

    --
    I am trolling
  15. Re:how are they surviving by smellystudent · · Score: 3, Informative

    In my case, I was using it before Firefox was available and I happen to like it. I have Firefox installed, but see no reason to go searching for all the plugins and options necessary to replicate the Opera experience.

    The killer features which got me hooked way back when were the MDI and gestures. Yes, I know you can do that on FF as well...

    As to what attracts new users to Opera over Firefox: I don't know. Personal choice maybe? Being recommended by a friend? Trying both out and (shock! horror!) actually preferring Opera?

    --
    Predictive text is shiv!
  16. Happy B-Day Opera! + Another Way To Get Opera Free by d3bruts1d · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been using Opera for probably 4 years now, and couldn't be happier. IMO, Opera has been (and still is) well worth the price. Obviously I'm not alone as many other people also purchase Opera. :P

    Though, for those of you who run websites, blogs, or whatever there is another way for you to get Opera for free. And that is simply by sending 250 referrals to Opera. So if you miss out on the birthday party, you want to look into that.

    I look forward to Opera's 20th birthday and beyond!

  17. Re:It not really "works"... by MSFanBoi · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some of us are actually using IE 7.0 Beta1...

    As for having to move the mouse just to go back, I have a multibutton mouse, didnt even have to set it up to use the thumb button as the "Back" function.

    Are you telling me Opera, Mozilla and Firefox don't have a tonne of bugs? I work of plenty of Web App devs who know all too well that there a bugs, lots of bugs, both big and small in all of the above, including IE.

    And who's fault is it for not patching?

  18. Opera did not use Cydoor code by :jax: · · Score: 5, Informative

    Opera never used Cydoor or anyone else's software for the ad banner, and wasn't spyware with version 5 either. We spent a lot of effort to make sure of that. The entire architecture was our own. Cydoor was just an ad provider.

    Jonny Axelsson, Opera Software

  19. Re:Codes are for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    'Can I have Flashblock in Opera?'
    Press F12 and uncheck 'Enable plug-ins'.

    'How about something like the "NukeAnything" extension?'
    Use CSS style sheets to block certain objects. Nothing from a context menu, though, as far as I know.

    'Can I configure it to automatically open new tabs when I type an address in the address bar?'
    Shift+enter opens in a new tab.

    Hope that helped a little, good luck using Opera!

  20. Re:Oh gee. Free registration codes. by dumeinst · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've used all three mainline windows browsers. IE, Firefox, Opera. IE is, for me, unusable. No tabs, slow, dull. It's a relic. And this from the 'leading' software company in the world.

    I've been using firefox for a good while now and I love it. It's everything you want and need plus inifinite customability.

    Having said that. I've used opera before but didn't like the ads and wasn't about to pay for features I could get for free. I downloaded it today and the speed of it puts firefox to SHAME.

    I'll probably continue using firefox but I can definitely see why people love this browser. Anyways. I'm just ranting. I'm sure no one gives a shit :)

  21. Re:how are they surviving by slapout · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are quiet a few reasons I use Opera. Without needing extensions, I get all the following:


    • Tabbed browsing that works better than Firefox's. And I can put the tabs on the bottom where I like them.
    • Settings for each window can be controled individually. I can have one site open with graphics turned off and another site open with graphics on, at the same time.
    • Mouse Gestures.
    • Control-D. This does a "Paste and Go". Instead of taking two steps, pasting in a url and going to it only takes one.
    • Built in search bar that supports Google, Amazon, Ebay and others.
    • If it crashes, I have the option of opening the same sites I was at the next time I run it.
    • Can view a page in "user view". Good if a page is hard to read because of poorly choosen background colors.
    • And more! -- See 30 Days to Becoming an Opera7 Lover

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
  22. Re:how are they surviving by Pete · · Score: 4, Informative
    I find the mouse gestures on Opera are just so much better than those available (with an extension) on Firefox or Mozilla. It's like the difference between day and night.

    When I tried using mouse gestures on Firefox, they worked... just. But the "feel" wasn't responsive enough for it to be worth using. On Opera (at least on Windows - I haven't used Opera much on Linux) it was incredibly responsive and the overall mouse gesture experience was really really nice.

  23. Useful sites for all the new Opera users by Taladar · · Score: 4, Informative

    When you finished /.ing opera.com or still need reasons why to use Opera you might want to have a look at the following sites:

    Opera Wiki
    Opera Userjavascripts at userjs.org
    30 Days to becoming an Opera8 Lover

    1. Re:Useful sites for all the new Opera users by d3bruts1d · · Score: 2, Informative

      Don't forget Opera-Watch... :P It's probably the best site as far as insider info and news about the Opera Browser.

  24. Re:Codes are for by rsheridan6 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I prefer Firefox's interface, but Opera is undeniably faster. I use Firefox for normal browsing, but for long documents like manuals, I use Opera, which can search through several hundred KB worth of html without slowing down a bit (unlike Firefox on my machinge).

    --
    Don't drop the soap, Tommy!
  25. Re:how are they surviving by Gubbe · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'll add a couple:

    - Undo: Press ctrl-z if you accidentally close a tab you didn't want to close and it pops right back up.
    - Unconditional back/fwd. Opera never refreshes a page you go back to with the 'back' function. Have the connection time out when submitting some big form? Just click back and you have the form there just like you filled it out.
    - Can be used as one fullscreen window only. All links are opened as new tabs regardless of where they come from, making sure you never have to wonder what browser window it was that had that particular tab open. Also closing the last tab doesn't close Opera.
    - The F12 -menu that allows changing proxy/popup/browserID/pluginblock/soundblock/etc settings without a single dialog.
    - Infinitely configurable to make it feel just like you want it.

    - And more! -- See 30 Days to Becoming an Opera8 Lover (seems to be up to day 21 so far)

  26. Re:how are they surviving by jp10558 · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is the thing, and why it's good there's choice in the market. One main reason I won't use FireFox is because it has extensions. This promotes two big issues for me -

    1) Makes the devs lazy, someone else will write an extension for that "must have" feature. Well, then I as a user have to find it, install it, maintain it, and hope the extension dev doesn't get bored with keeping it working with the new versions, or I lose that feature.

    2) Allows toolbars like in IE - now my install of Acrobat can put Yahoo in my Alternative browser too! The joy!

    3) Mozilla and FireFox devs assume no responsibility for extensions, they can conflict and break my browser - more headaches!

    Ooops, that was 3.

    Anyway, it depends on what you want, and FF works for you. For me, I can use proxomitron and have adblocking for all browsers on my system. I don't lose features regularily with upgrades, nor do I have to manage my features. Less work, more working.

    So from my point of view, I'm amazed so many people put up with FF. Though it is better than IE, so it makes some sense.

    --
    Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
  27. Re:Roboform by jp10558 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, I'd love to see such a feature added to Opera.

    I'm really not sure why Roboform can't work with Opera - on the Opera forums, it seems to be a case of Roboform claiming Opera doesn't let them do X which is needed to make it work, and Opera claiming the same thing to Roboform.

    Drop it in the wishlists of both companies, maybe with enough outcry it will get fixed.

    --
    Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
  28. Re:Codes are for by nicomen · · Score: 4, Informative

    Opera has a lot of nifty "extensions" by using User Javascript. That means JavaScript snippets that are appended to web pages (this in addition to being able to have JavaScript in buttons and panels)

    The webpage http://userjs.org/ has a lot of them listed.

    NukeExtension and Flashblock:

        http://userjs.org/scripts/general/enhancements/hid e-objects

        http://userjs.org/scripts/general/enhancements/rem ove-transparent-flash

    Open new tab when typing address:

        Type this in the addressbar:

        javascript:void window.open("http://cnn.com");

        Ok, a but long, but you can add a button that pops up a requester (and open the address in a new tab) in a very simple manner.

        You can also cut'n'paste the address and when middle clicking tell opera to open that url in a new tab.

    --
    Nicolas Mendoza
    Prepare for MSIE 7
  29. Re:Still No NTLM Support by plenTpak · · Score: 2, Informative

    I had to use Firefox for a while for the same reason, but I found out that my work proxy is configured to use MS Proxy Client. You might be able to get it working to by going to the mspclnt share dir on your work's proxy server. (In Windows Explorer: \\proxyservername\mspclnt )

    This allows most of your applications to connect to the internet without needing to manually set each of their proxy settings.

  30. Re:Codes are for by fbjon · · Score: 4, Informative
    Wow, another adblock-troll, here goes the response:

    There are more options than that. Notice also that none of these are required to filter anything, the function is already built into Opera. These things just make it more convenient, but you can set up your filters manually in your filter.ini-file.

    It's not as convenient as the FFx-extensions though, but I see no ads in Opera now. In both browsers, once it's set up, it's set up anyway.

    The interface is clunky in this one, but it's very logical and you can block anything (of course): OperaAdFilter (freeware). You can simply filter all *.swf files if you so desire, or all servers starting with "http://ad.*". Another option for open-source advocates is C++AdBlock . If you want to know how the filtering works, there is a good explanation of it. Lastly, notice that you can block IP-ranges as well.

    All of these happen to be the first things in a simple Google search .

    I don't know if this was a troll, but so many people say this as "the only reason they don't switch", that it's just idiotic. From now on, anyone who mentions this again, will have their geek license removed , effective immediately!

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  31. Re:Nested tabs, already in Opera by fbjon · · Score: 2, Informative

    ..Thus it is essentially nested windowing systems, smart! Save a session, and when you open it, it goes into a new window by default.

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  32. Re:I actually like the ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    > Does anyone know where's the option of turning
    > them on even now that my browser has been
    > regsitered?

    Simply delete the OUsr600.dat file in the Opera directory.